Corporations are NOT people, and money is NOT speech

By Robert S. "Rob" Means

We must get the special-interest money out of our politics; it is destroying our democracy and screwing everyone except the rich.

These concepts + that corporations have inherent Constitution rights and that money is a form of speech + are completely made up by the Court. Created from nothing but their own lawyerly thinking. No such doctrine has ever been passed by state or federal legislatures nor signed by any governor or president. To the contrary, throughout our country's history, legislatures have passed laws limiting corporate involvement in politics. As Americans, we enjoyed a hundred years of legal jurisprudence in most states forbidding corporate expenditures. Corporations could be dissolved and their executives imprisoned for spending money in any way to influence an election. Things have really changed, and Supreme Court decisions caused that change.

Here is how our Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski puts it: "The 5-4 decision in the case of the Federal Elections Commission vs. Citizens United held that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts to influence election outcomes. It effectively invited corporations to spend wildly on campaigns. Big Business has accepted the invitation."

The Citizens United decision essentially unraveled 100 years of legal precedent limiting corporate influence in elections. It reversed prior Supreme Court decisions, repealed key portions of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and weakened various state laws limiting corporate campaign expenditures.

The ruling stated that there is virtually no distinction between the First Amendment rights of people and of corporations, and that independent campaign expenditures by corporations do not contribute to corruption or the appearance of corruption.

The majority on the court got it wrong." (For more background on the case, watch the 9-minute video The Story of Citizens United v. FEC )

So, Assemblyman Wieckowski has received my support in pushing back by introducing a resolution (AJR 22) calling upon Congress to send a constitutional amendment to the states for ratification that would overturn the Citizens United ruling. If passed, California will be the third state to do so, and will join a growing nationwide list of legislatures, organizations and cities. An estimated 50 similar resolutions have been passed in cities that range from small like Duluth, MN, Missoula, MT, Boulder, CO, South Miami, FL, and Richmond, CA to huge ones like Los Angeles (on Dec. 6) and New York (Jan. 4).

Although individual city councils, and even State legislatures, have no direct say in what will become of proposed constitutional amendment to counter the Citizens United, such resolutions are markers of public support and are critical to building the movement. The campaign in Los Angeles, for example, drew endorsements from a long list of organizations including Common Cause, Physicians for Social Responsibility, The Environmental Caucus of the CA Democratic Party, MoveOn LA, Democracy for America, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and California Clean Money Campaign. (For a complete list of all resolutions passed to date see: http://movetoamend.org/resolutions-map )

If those two made-up Supreme Court doctrines are overturned by a Constitutional Amendment, we have an entirely new playing field that allows us to continue the democratic experiment that is the United States.

However, it won't happen without a nationwide movement of people committed to their country. Those of us who have prospered in this country, or have taken an oath to uphold the U. S. Constitution, or simply believe that government of, by and for the people is better than corporate rule, are obligated to join the movement.